Many of the club’s top prospects, including Fiala and Forsberg to attend

Nashville, Tenn. – Many of the Nashville Predators top prospects – including 2014 11th overall selection Kevin Fiala and 2012 11th overall selection Filip Forsberg – will be on hand when the team’s 2014 Development Camp officially opens on Monday, July 7 with off-ice testing and physicals. Prospects will take to ice for more testing on Tuesday morning, July 8, with the first group practice to come at 9 a.m. CT on Wednesday, July 9. All sessions will take place at Bridgestone Arena culminating with a game and open house on Saturday, July 12 at 3:30 p.m.

The purpose of the camp is to educate and direct players in their pro development and conditioning programs, and the week’s events will be presided over by Predators Director of Player Development Scott Nichol and Strength and Conditioning Coach David Good, with assistance from the rest of the Nashville Predators and Milwaukee Admirals (AHL Affiliate) coaching and hockey operations staffs. The scheduled training regimen includes a variety of on- and off-ice testing, dry-land activities and workouts, on-ice fundamentals work, video sessions, media and nutrition education, and team-building activities. The players will also receive instruction on training principles such as sport-specific power and strength enhancement, flexibility and off-ice conditioning.

Players will also participate in community relations activities on Thursday afternoon; a full release with times and locations will be available in the coming days.

Sessions on July 9, 11 and 12 are open to the public. Sessions on July 9 and 11 will see two groups go for roughly an hour and 15 minutes with media to follow.

The development camp schedule and roster are attached. Please note that players will be available for interviews after the events/activities take place; please contact the Nashville Predators Communications Department for more information on specific events/activities. The schedule is subject to change.

A few storylines regarding Development Camp attendees:

• Pontus Aberg and Johan Alm are expected to play their first seasons in North America after spending time in the Swedish Hockey League. Aberg was a finalist for league Rookie of the Year in 2012, while Alm has won back-to-back SHL titles with Skelleftea.

• 2014 draftee Viktor Arvidsson was a teammate of Alm's on both Skelleftea title-winning teams. He was a 2013 SHL Rookie of the Year finalist and the 2013 Swedish Junior Hockey Player of the Year.

• 2014 first-round pick Kevin Fiala was a finalist for the 2014 SHL Rookie of the Year Award and became just the third player ever to participate in the Under-18 World Championship, World Junior Championship and World Championship all in the same year. He was teammates of Preds defenseman Roman Josi and forward Simon Moser at Worlds.

• Filip Forsberg, Colton Sissons, Marek Mazanec all spent time with Nashville in 2013-14 and will enter their second North American pro seasons in 2014-15. Sissons and Forsberg will contend for jobs at the NHL level.

• Jonathan Diaby, Garrett Noonan, Jaynen Rissling and Mikko Vainonen will all likely start their first pro seasons with Milwaukee, forming the bulk of the team's blue lines corps.

• Vainonen, Saku Maenalanen and Janne Juvonen were all part of the Finnish National Team that won Gold at the 2014 World Junior Championship. Maenalanen led the 2014 World Junior Championship in goals (7), ranked second in plus/minus rating (+9), and tied for third in points (11)

• Brendan Leipsic enters the professional ranks in 2014-15 after a four-season junior career with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks that saw him amass 302 points in 261 games which included a CHL scoring title in 2012-13. He also made an appearance in the 2013 Memorial Cup on a team that also included Seth Jones.

• Jonathan Diaby's father, Sékana, played soccer professionally in France and Turkey from 1986-97, and represented Ivory Coast in international competition, including the 1992 FIFA Confederations Cup and 1994 FIFA World Cup Qualifier.

• Vladislav Kamenev is the first Russian drafted by the Predators since 2004. He played for former NHL head coach Mike Keenan with Metallurg Magnitogorsk in 2013-14.

• Miikka Salomaki led the Milwaukee Admirals in points last season during his first campaign in North America.

• Zach Stepan and Jimmy Vesey have both represented the United States at the World Junior Championship. Vesey won Gold in 2013 (along with Predators defenseman Seth Jones and Assistant Coach Phil Housley) and will play his junior season at Harvard in 2014-15, while Stepan - the younger cousin of the NY Rangers' Derek - will be a sophomore at Minnesota State.

• Felix Girard is a back-to-back winner of the Guy Carbonneau Trophy as the QMJHL's Best Defensive Forward in 2013 and 2014. He will play for Milwaukee in 2014-15.

• Justin Kirkland is a Kelowna Rocket, the same program that produced Shea Weber and Colton Sissons, and has been compared to former Rocket and 2014 NHL First-Team All-Star Jamie Benn. He also played for the prestigious Notre Dame Hounds program in Wilcox, Sask., whose alumni include 19 current NHLers such as Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier, Jaden Schwartz, Rene Bourque, Willie Mitchell, Jordan Eberle, Sean Couturier and Tyler Myers, and former All-Stars Wendel Clark, Rod Brind'Amour and Curtis Joseph.